Blackberry Smoke members are no stranger to the grinds of touring, having slugged out on the road for more than a decade. However, what is perhaps new in the Southern rock band’s tour, which comes to Grand Rapids’s The Intersection this month, is the fact that it was planned around the band’s most recent release, The Whippoorwill.

“We’ve never done an album and actually planned a tour around it,” said singer and guitarist Charlie Starr. “It’s always been ‘tour constantly and whenever the album is done, it comes out.’ It’s a new thing for us to actually plan this far ahead.”

This change of events happened when country megastar Zac Brown’s Southern Ground label signed the group. The band had performed twenty-plus dates with the Zac Brown Band in 2011 along with toured with Kid Rock, the Marshall Tucker Band, ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and George Jones.

What to expect? A mixture of music that a diverse set of audiences will appreciate from “Six Ways to Sunday,” a footstomping with a Motown feel, to “The Whippoorwill,” which has a blues approach of the seventies-era Pink Floyd.

Check out the band yourself, January 3 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $15. The show is open to all ages. Visit www.sectionlive.com